The Devil in the Dark (episode)
The Enterprise arrives at Janus VI, where an unknown monster is destroying machinery and killing the miners, threatening the entire mining operation. Summary Teaser On Janus VI, a miner named Schmitter replaces Sam at his guard post. Moments after Chief Vanderberg and the other guards move on, they hear a scream and return to find Schmitter reduced to a crisp and a pile of black ashes. Act One Two days later, the ''Enterprise'' arrives at Janus VI in response to a distress call. For the past three months, a mysterious creature has been terrorizing the mining colony there, resulting in the deaths of over fifty people. Pergium production has come to a halt, and it is the Enterprise crew's job to get it back on track. The deaths have all been caused by a mysterious corrosive acid of an unknown type; this acid has also been used to sabotage machinery on the lower levels. Only one man saw the creature and lived: Ed Appel, who shot it with his phaser type-1 with no effect. As Kirk, Spock, and McCoy discuss possibilities in Vanderberg's office, they are summoned to the colony's nuclear reactor by an alarm. The creature has killed the guard outside, burned its way in, and stolen the reactor's main circulating pump. Act Two Scotty says he can rig up a replacement that will last a little while, but without that pump the reactor will go super-critical and irradiate half the planet. Kirk and Spock deduce that they may be dealing with a silicon-based lifeform, rather than the normal carbon-based found throughout the galaxy. This would explain why the creature does not show up on sensors and why it was impervious to Appel's phaser. Kirk summons Giotto and a security team, and has Spock adjust their type 2 phasers to be more effective against silicon. The security team is dispatched to level 23, which was opened just before the attacks began. A security man is killed by the creature, bringing Kirk and Spock to the scene. They see the creature, and fire on it, damaging it, but it gets away, tunneling through the rock with its acid. Act Three The search teams focus in on where the creature was seen, Attit-26, and Kirk runs into it again. Act Four The Horta does not attack him, however, and soon Spock arrives and initiates a Vulcan mind meld with it. He learns that it is a sentient being of a race called the Horta, and was murdering the miners because they were inadvertently killing her children by destroying "useless" silicon nodules that were actually Horta eggs. McCoy manages to cure the Horta's wound with thermal concrete, and she returns the pump. Spock negotiates an agreement between the miners and the Horta; the miners will leave the Horta alone and the baby Horta, soon to begin hatching, will help the miners locate new sources of mineral in the planet. Log Entries * [[Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2267|Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2267]] Memorable Quotes "When that creature appears, men die." : - Vanderberg, on the Horta "Kiss it! Baby it! Flatter it if you have to! But keep it going." : - Kirk to Scott, on fixing the circulating pump "There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal." : - Kirk to Giotto, after the Horta flees "Either one of us by himself is expendable. Both of us are not." : - Kirk, to Spock "Pain! Pain!" : - Spock, sensing the Horta's agony "No kill I. What is that? A plea for us not to kill it? Or a promise that it won't kill us?" : - Kirk, reading the Horta's message "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!" "You're a healer. There's a patient. That's an order." : - McCoy and Kirk, on treating the Horta "By golly, Jim! I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!" : - McCoy, after healing the Horta "The Horta has a very logical mind. And after close association with humans, I find that curiously refreshing." : - Spock, to Kirk "I suspect you're becoming more and more human all the time." "Captain, I see no reason to stand here and be insulted." : - Kirk and Spock Background Information Story and Production * This episode marks the first and only time an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series began without the Enterprise or its crew being involved in the teaser scenes before the main credits. * This episode was originally scheduled to be filmed before , with Ralph Senensky assigned to direct it, but during pre-production the two episodes and the directors were switched. * Gene L. Coon's original script featured a different chemical substance as the base of the Horta, but researcher Kellam de Forest corrected it to silicon, as the original choice seemed to be even theoretically impossible. (Inside Star Trek - The Real Story) Performers * George Takei (Sulu) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) do not appear in this episode. * William Shatner's father died during the filming of this episode. Episode stand-in and background actor Eddie Paskey recalled shooting certain scenes in this episode and had high praise for Shatner during this time, stating, "as soon as we wrapped with that show, Bill left. We came to find out that as he shot all day long, he was preparing to get on an airplane to go home – his father just passed away. No one knew until he was actually gone. And, y'know, that says a lot for the dedication of the man." * When Shatner got the call from his mother, informing him about his father's death on the set, the crew was ready to shut down production, but he insisted on continue filming. During the rest of the day, Shatner took comfort in Leonard Nimoy, and cinematographer Jerry Finnerman, whose father died on a movie set less than seven years prior.(The World of Star Trek) Props and Sets * A portion of a Horta tunnel was seen in as the entrance to the Underground's cavern. * The unbroken Horta eggs were toy bouncing balls painted gold. * The reactor for the colony is the same piece of equipment in engineering that Kirk's double phasered in . * The clubs used by some of the Janus VI colonists during their hunt for the Horta appear to be of the same design used by Kirk during his fight with Spock in the transporter room in . * Janos Prohaska, the creator of the Horta costume, actually wore it into producer Gene L. Coon's office, as if to say "Look what I designed". Coon said "That's great! What is it?", and Prohaska said "I don't know. It can be whatever you want." Coon replied "I'll write a script around it.", and he wrote this episode in four days so the costume could be used. (The World of Star Trek) * The over-sized microbe from the final episode of the 1960s version of The Outer Limits (titled "The Probe", with Peter Mark Richman) was the basis for the Horta. It was also designed and performed by Janos Prohaska. Costumes * The miners' one-piece uniforms were worn in a number of subsequent episodes: on various Denevans in , on Robert Johnson in , on a Deep Space Station K-7 bar patron and Lurry in , on Rojan and Tomar in , on Professor Starnes and other Triacus colonists in , on Linke and Ozaba in , on corpses in , and on Dr. Arthur Coleman in . * Although the uniforms come in various colors, Vanderberg is the only miner who wears a yellow specimen, and Ed Appel uniquely wears a purple one, which apparently was later worn by the dead Tellarite on Memory Alpha in the third-season episode The Lights of Zetar. Continuity * This is the only episode in the original series in which the distinction is drawn between "phaser one" and "phaser two." * Pergium mining was later referenced in and . * Although having not appeared in this episode, Sulu would mention "the Hortas of Janus VI" in . Response * In his book Star Trek Memories, William Shatner identified this as his favorite episode, because his father died during filming and Nimoy's delivery of the mind meld lines made him laugh. Shatner insisted on finishing his dialogue scenes and after he left for the funeral, a stand-in (Eddie Paskey) completed his shots with Spock and the Horta, filmed from behind. When the scenes were later edited together, in several sequences, Shatner has his phaser up and the stand-in does not. However, in the later Star Trek: Fan Collective - Captain's Log DVD set, Shatner said that his favorite episode was . * once remarked, in , that of the Original Series, the only episode he could recall was "The Devil in the Dark", stating that "It impressed me because it presented the idea, unusual in science fiction then ''and now, that something weird, and even dangerous, need not be malevolent. That is a lesson that many of today's politicians have yet to learn." (Star Trek: Four Generations) * Leonard Nimoy identified this episode's closing banter between Spock and Kirk as one of his favorite scenes to perform. He noted, "''It was a wonderful moment which defined the relationship and defined the whole Spock character's existence and his attitude about himself." (Reflections on Spock, TOS Season 1 DVD special features) Novelizations and Adaptations * McCoy specifies that he had the Enterprise beam down about a hundred pounds of thermal concrete. In James Blish's novelization of the episode in Star Trek 4, which was generally based more so on early draft scripts than final drafts, states that McCoy only used ten pounds on concrete. * Bantam Books published a series of novelizations called "foto-novels," which took photographic stills from actual episodes and arranged word balloons and text over them to create a comic book-formatted story. The ninth installment was an adaptation of this episode. In it, Leslie is depicted as thinking to himself, "That Vulcan would have us killed for his precious science!" after Spock instructs the security detail to capture the Horta. * The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel Devil in the Sky is a sequel of sorts to this episode. * The WildStorm Comics comic "Star Trek: Special" featured a short story of the Borg attacking Janus IV. * No Kill I was the name of a Star Trek themed punk rock band. Remastered Information * "The Devil in the Dark" was the third episode of the remastered version of The Original Series to air. It premiered in syndication on the weekend of and most notably featured new effects shots of the pergium production station, the Horta burning through a mine wall, and final fly-by of the Enterprise. Max Gabl was responsible for creating the new CGI for the mining colony, at the time it was his very first assignment on the episode. http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/tos_planets1.htm Producer Niel Wray was included in the matte shot as one of the two workmen walking into a tunnel in the lower corner. Wray and another member of the team were shot against a blue screen and placed into the matte. Niel was chosen because he fit into the costume. http://trekmovie.com/2006/11/20/behind-the-scenes-at-cbs-digital/ File:Janus VI colony collage.jpg|The original Janus VI mining colony matte painting File:Janus VI colony.jpg|The remastered computer-generated colony File:Horta burns through rockface.jpg|The original disintegrating wall effect File:Horta burns through rockface, remastered.jpg|The remastered computer-generated effect :The next remastered episode to air was . Production Timeline * Story outline by Gene L. Coon, * Story outline, * First draft script: * Final draft script: * Filmed: – * Original airdate: * Rerun airdate: * Remastered airdate: Video and DVD Releases *Original US Betamax release: . *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 14, catalogue number VHR 2307, ''release date unknown. *US VHS release: . *UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 1.9, . *Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 13, . *As part of the TOS Season 1 DVD collection. *As part of the TOS Season 1 HD DVD collection. * As part of the TOS Season 1 Blu-ray collection. Links and References Starring * William Shatner as Capt. Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock Co-Stars * DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy * Ken Lynch as Vanderberg Featuring * James Doohan as Scott * Brad Weston as Appel * Biff Elliot as Schmitter * George E. Allen as Engineer #1 * Jon Cavett as a guard ;And * Barry Russo as Giotto Uncredited Co-Stars * William Blackburn as Hadley * Frank da Vinci as Vinci * Bob Hoy as ** Sam ** Mother Horta (unconfirmed) * Eddie Paskey as Leslie * Janos Prohaska as the mother Horta * Ron Veto as Harrison * Unknown actors as: ** Lewis ** Osborne ** Roberts ** Miners * Niel Wray as Miner (remastered) References 50,000 years ago; 2210s; 2240s; 2266; acid; adit; administrative head; animal; Alter of Tomorrow; armor plating; asbestos; asphyxiation; bandage; bone; bricklayer; carbon life; cerium; Chamber of the Ages; Channel 1; chief; chief engineer; chief processing engineer; chemist; club; colony; devil; distress call; drift; ears; egg; empathy; Federation; foot; gallery; geology; ghost; gold; guard; hatchery; healer; Horta; Janus VI; Janus VI colony; life span; main circulating pump; maintenance engineer; medical kit; mile; miner; mineral; modus vivendi; monster; nuclear reactor; oxygen; pergium; pergium production station; phaser bank; phaser I; phaser II; physician; physiology; platinum; plumber; pound; PXK pergium reactor; radiation poisoning; rain; reactor room; retardation mechanism; science; sentry; silicon; silicon-based lifeform; silicon nodule; starship; stone; teeth; thermal concrete; tissue; tricorder; trowel; tunnel; Vault of Tomorrow; volcano; Vulcan; Vulcan mind meld; uranium; yard; zoology External link * |next= |lastair= |nextair= |lastair_remastered= |nextair_remastered= }} de:Horta rettet ihre Kinder es:The Devil in the Dark fr:The Devil in the Dark ja:TOS:地底怪獣ホルタ nl:The Devil in the Dark pl:The Devil in the Dark Devil in the Dark, The